In Review

EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY Marvels of Madagascar

(Photo: Adam Fenster)

Species argument: Leaf-tailed geckos native to Madagascar are among the species of reptiles and amphibians whose slowing rates of evolution may indicate the end of an evolutionary heyday for the African island. A new study by Daniel Scantlebury, a PhD student in biology, offers further proof of Darwin’s theory that adaptive processes slow as the evolutionary niches available to species are filled in. (Clockwise from top left: mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae; Henkel’s leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus henkeli; mossy leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus sikorae; and cork-bark leaf-tailed gecko, Uroplatus pietschmanni.)